Part 5 – Conclusion

OK, so now the summary. If you’ve skipped straight to this part, let me make it easy for you. The 40D is an excellent camera. The fact that it’s getting “highly recommended” or equivalents over the web is absolutely unsurprising. It’s taken the baseline of an already highly awarded camera (the 30D) and added significantly improved features across nearly a dozen different key areas. This is almost the definition of how to effectively improve while not fixing what’s not broken.

Many people have described this as the 1D MK3’s little brother (sans the AF problems which are now thankfully being resolved). I wholeheartedly agree. With similarly equipped glass, I would feel extremely confident about being able to get similar results shooting alongside 1D MK3 cameras. There are advantages with the pro camera of course, and I’m not saying those differences aren’t worth paying for, but the fact that I’m even able to consider the two as comparable in any situation is a triumph by Canon.

However, for all its features, the 40D is not without its issues. It’s also not a revolution in photographic equipment. It has average LCD resolution and hasn’t added anything potentially “game changing” like Nikon did with the D300 and its 51 AF points. When I saw the respective announcements from Canon and Nikon, I almost felt that Canon was missing something. That is, until I went to purchase one. That’s when I realized its real killer feature – the price. I purchased the 40D one week after its release here in Singapore for approx SGD $1,850 (about USD $1,275 at current exchange rates). For me, to deliver this much camera at this much price was incredible. This is as solid a camera as it gets with a long list of strengths and few weaknesses. Factor the price in and this becomes a spectacular deal.

Despite the number of Canon fanatics who somehow believe Nikon will mess up on their D300 release, I actually have little doubt that the D300 will offer more features and capability than the 40D (and I hope so too – the more competition we see in the market the better for consumers and photographers). On paper at least, it provides comparable features while potentially offering more in the way of its LCD, Live View, and AF. Unless they really fail badly on the image quality, they’ll have a better camera in the market within a month of this article. However, the story doesn’t end there. The real challenge Nikon (and other manufacturers such as Olympus) are going to have is to deliver better value for the dollar, as Canon have just set the bar with the 40D. I believe that Canon, in delivering the 40D with these features at this price, have produced the best value camera on the market, irrespective of range. The next month will see whether that position is challenged be upcoming releases from Nikon with the D300 or Olympus with the E-3.